LISTEN: William Lynwood Montell talks with Josh James on "Bookmarks," WUKY-FM |

A good ghost story can make your hair stand on end, your palms sweat, and your heart race. The bone-chilling collection Tales of Kentucky Ghosts presents more than 250 stories that do just that. In his new book, William Lynwood Montell has assembled an entertaining and diverse array of tales from across the commonwealth that will keep you checking under the bed every night.

The first-person accounts in this collection showcase folklore that Montell has drawn from archives, family stories, and oral traditions throughout Kentucky. The stories include that of the ghost bride of Laurel County, who appears each year on the anniversary of her wedding day; the tale of the murdered worker who haunts the Simpson County home of his killer and former employer; and the account of the lost mandolin that plays itself in a house in Graves County. These and many other chilling stories haunt the pages of Tales of Kentucky Ghosts.

In the tradition of Montell’s previous Kentucky ghost books (Ghosts across Kentucky and Haunted Houses and Family Ghosts of Kentucky), Tales of Kentucky Ghosts brings together a variety of terrifying narratives that not only entertain and frighten but also serve as a unique record of Kentucky’s rich heritage of storytelling.

William Lynwood Montell, professor emeritus of folk studies at Western Kentucky University, is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including Tales of Kentucky Doctors and Tales from Kentucky Funeral Homes.

Montell vividly re-creates the context of storytelling in Kentucky in times past. This evocation of the rich folk history of the region is the special strength and magic his work offers to readers: the sense that their own tales, ways, and beliefs are part of a valuable legacy that deserves respect and honor. This is a matter about which Montell is passionate, and his passion shines through. -- Margaret Read MacDonald, author of Ten Traditional Tellers

Is sure to both entertain and chill its readers while also allowing them to consider their own supernatural heritage. -- Manchester Enterprise

Montell has combined more than 270 stories from across the Commonwealth. -- Kentucky Monthly

Entertaining, frightening and yet though evoking Montell’s collection of stories is a wonderful offering of the rich heritage Kentucky has handed down to its citizens. -- Chevy Chaser Southsider

[Montell] combed through university archives and interviewed countless individuals to provide a look at regional legend and lore. -- Hancock News

This is a great collection of ghost stories that reflect Kentucky's rich history and legends. -- Tuscon Citizen

Those who first and foremost seek a sense of how ghost stories are told may well favor Tales of Kentucky Ghosts above all his other books. -- Appalachian Journal

[T]his is a very good book . . . . the stories have the air of genuinely individual experiences . . . . [Y]ou will be well entertained if you invest in this excellent selection of ghost stories and share them with your friends. -- Gillian Bennett -- Folklore -- The Folklore Society, UK

Lynwood Montell is truly an icon in the field of Kentucky folklore. He continues to offer us Kentucky ghost tales that range from entertaining to spine chilling, whether it is the tale of a ghost chewing Moore’s Red Leaf Tobacco in Patti’s Restaurant or the shoes that miraculously stayed dry during a flood or any of the other stories in the collection. They are a wonderful form of oral history and a valuable addition to our Kentucky heritage. -- James McCormick and Macy A. Wyatt, authors of Ghosts of the Bluegrass

Tales of Kentucky Ghosts offers a wide range from possible and frightening to folkloric and improbable tales which both enriches the accessible collection of ghostly tales and provides compelling reading. Lynwood Montell successfully reports on family stories, bizarre creatures, urban legends, classic country ghost tales, strange glowing lights, talking cats and so much more. -- Thomas Freese, author of Ghosts, Spirits, and Angels: True Tales from Kentucky and Beyond